The Sideshow

Man ordered to install septic system, insists his outhouse is just fine

A Pennsylvania man, who says his outhouse works just fine, is being ordered to install a septic system. The man told Lancaster Online that the septic system could cost him thousands.

The man, 77-year-old Wilson Huyett, told the website that Salisbury Township told him he has to replace the outhouse with a septic system that consists of three underground tanks, a pump and a "three-trench sand mound." Though he doesn't know the official cost yet, Huyett is estimating the project will make him $20,000 lighter.

Huyett, who lives on a farm where his nearest neighbor is a quarter-mile away, insists that his current low-tech system is just fine. "You can't smell nothing," he told the paper. "I put lime in it. Lime will kill anything."

Salisbury Township supervisor Lester O. Houck told Lancaster Online that the township is required to enforce state Department of Environmental Protection regulations "whether we like it or not."

Huyett, who has lived on the property since 1958, said that he spoke to sewage enforcement official Bob Mohn about the issue. In an email to the website, Mohn wrote that Huyett's outhouse violates Pennsylvania law.

"The DEP regulations do not care whether it is one person or a family, nor does age or financial concerns make a difference," Mohn wrote. "The township's responsibility is to assure the waters of the Commonwealth are not jeopardized."